Official Site of The State of New Jersey
Health Indicator Reports
What are health indicators?
Health indicators are summary measures that are designed to describe particular aspects of a population's health or health system performance.What are indicator reports?
NJSHAD Indicator Reports are brief online reports that contain graphs, maps, data tables, and contextual information for a specific public health issue, such as why it's important, what the current status is, and what is being done to improve it. Each Indicator Report has a graph (or several graphs) to give a picture of the data. Text is also provided to answer the most commonly asked questions about the specific topic addressed.What's in the drop downs along the top of the report?
- Data Views: Each NJSHAD Indicator Report contains at least one view (graph, map, and/or table), a Summary Report, and a Complete Report. Use this drop down to select what you want to see.
- More Information: Important facts and available services related to that Indicator Report. These are included in the Complete Report.
- Related Indicator Reports: Other NJSHAD Indicator Reports that may be of interest in relation to this Indicator Report. Choosing from the drop down will bring you to an entirely different report and you will land on that report's Summary page.
- Associated Health Topics: Choosing from the drop down will bring you to that NJSHAD Health Topic page.
How can I interact with indicator reports?
NJSHAD Basics for Beginners contains tips and tricks to get the most out of graphs, maps, and data tables.What if I need more detailed data?
Custom Dataset Queries provide more detail for those datasets included in the system. Alternatively, the office responsible for the data may be contacted directly using the information available in the footer at the bottom of the Indicator Report page.How do I cite health indicator reports?
Use and reproduction of the information published on this website is encouraged and may be done without permission. Please refer to the NJSHAD Citation page for suggested citation styles.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that comprehensive key indicator systems
had the following positive effects:
- Enhanced collaboration to address public issues.
- Provided tools to encourage progress.
- Informed decision making and improved research.
- Increased public knowledge about key issues.
Chart Progress
- Track and evaluate progress toward goals
- Compare trends across time to demonstrate improvement or decline in health status
- Get information to use for program development
- Enhance our ability to do public health assessment
Decision-Making and Focus
- Provide information that will be useful for decision-making
- Guide policy decisions, priorities, and strategic plans
- Compare measures across population subgroups to identify target groups for interventions
- Allocate resources effectively
Understand Data and Provide Education
- Educate the public on what public health is
- Provide public health context to better understand the meaning of public health data
- Ensure adequate understanding of public health data commonly used in decision-making
- Provide focus to data analysis and support functions
- Streamline data collection and reporting capacity
- Focus measurement and reporting on measures that are high-priority
- Standardize and promote familiarity with definitions of priority measures
- Maintain data and information in a central location for easy access for use in producing reports, grant applications, and presentations
- Provide an integrated view of public health services to our customers